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Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered, "Hokey Pokey" was originally released in March 1975 on Island. This album, along with "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" and "Pour Down Like Silver" form a trio of definitive English folk-rock classics of incredible beauty and stellar musicianship. This edition also includes a pair of previously unreleased live performances captured at the Roundhouse, London on September 7, 1975 and a BBC Radio One session recorded in London on February 11, 1975 for the John Peel Show.

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...not sticking your leg in and shaking it all about, thank you. A little historical perspective: "Hokey Pokey" here, subtitled "The Ice Cream Song," refers to a bastardised version of the Italian for "Ice cream--I have some," a frequent cry of ice cream sellers on the streets of New York City and elsewhere early in the 20th Century. Trust Richard Thompson to come up with the most double entendre-laden song to ever come from something so innocent!

This, the second album Richard and Linda made together (from a total of six), tends to get rather short shrift in Thompson's catalogue--more's the pity, as this is quite a fine album. Linda's vocals are as good as ever, and she sings lead on more than half of the tracks here. Aly Bain's fiddle drives the title cut along with some searing leads from RT, and Richard's darkly humourous (and sometimes just plain dark) lyrics take quite the twist here--note the punning "turn a blind eye" lyric in "Smiffy's Glass Eye," which is about a young boy who is the perennial school bully's victim for having a prosthetic orb; or his rather backhanded paean to whiskey in "I'll Regret it All in the Morning." And how about his ode to the many kinds of poverty in "The Sun Never Shines on the Poor"?

Of the original 10 tracks, there is but one cover, the wryly humourous closer "Mole in a Hole," written by Mike Waterson. Then we come to the five bonus tracks included on the remaster; of these, three are covers, the best being Merle Haggard's "I'm Turning Off a Memory" (to whose drinking-to-forget lyrics Linda does full justice--one might be tempted to say she missed her calling by not making a career singing country music, but then when was the last time you heard of a British C&W singer?) and the rollicking "It'll Be Me." This is unquestionably a must-have.

"Hokey Pokey" is generally regarded as the weakest of Richard and Linda's early albums, but I regard it as only slightly less great than "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight," which is their best. In fact, I like it better in a way because it's more fun. Richard has said that he and Linda made a conscious attempt to be more upbeat with "Hokey Pokey," and that he's not sure if it was successful. Well, I'm here to say that it WAS successful, although in an odd way because even the most upbeat songs here have dark undercurrents.Richard and Linda's music has never sold well in the U.S., and that may be partly due to the fact that it is so British. And their England has more in common with the England of William Blake than that of the Beatles. An exception here is "Georgie on a Spree," which sounds like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." But this sort of material sounds much more natural coming from Richard and Linda than it does from the Beatles. (I think John Lennon would have agreed.) The final song, "Mole in a Hole," is another music hall-style number, but with a very odd chorus: "I want to be a mole in a hole digging low and slow/I want to be a fly flying high in the sky." It was not written by Richard (or Linda), but it is the perfect album closer, summing up the sardonic worldview of everything that comes before it.The first track, "Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song)" features great interplay between Linda's voice and Richard's guitar. The lyrics mix images of innocence and sexual suggestion in a way that would be very difficult for most singers to put across without it turning into low comedy, but Linda nails it.Read more ›

OK, so they weren't really twins but Linda often said they sounded like siblings when they harmonized. Don't dwell on it too much it could get creepy if you do. Anyhow, another great album from the duo, "Hokey Pokey" features Thompson's brilliant double entendre comparing ice cream to sex. According to Thompson, "A little poke is all you'll need" although you'll get greedy after hearing this song and want to hear every single track. AMG rates this as four stars stating that it doesn't reach the "lofty heights" of "Lights". I disagree. It remains a stunning album that might be a bit sunnier than "Lights" but every bit as captivating.

The reissue has 5 bonus tracks four of them from John Peel BBC sessions that have never been released. Linda's beautiful vocal on the remake of "Wishing" and the remake of Merle Haggard's "I'm Turning Off a Memory" both only enrich an already great album. "A Heart Needs A Home" sounds terrific here as well with We also get the title track from the album played live at the Roundhouse. The sonics on the BBC sessions aren't quite as stellar as those on the album but that's not a surprise. The album is rounded out by "It'll Be Me" recorded live (and previously released) live at Oxford is taken from "Guitar, Vocal".

Featuring the lyrics to the songs and some brief liner notes this is worthwhile picking up if you have the previous edition primarily for the previously unreleased tracks although the sound is extremely good as well.

During the two short years 1974-75, and a decade before the monolithic "Shoot Out the Lights," Richard and Linda Thompson crafted three magnificant records. "Hokey Pokey" had the misfortune of following their stunning debut, "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight," and in comparison seems a lesser work of art. The sweeping beauty of its predecessor is glimpsed only in spots, as in the oft-recorded "A Heart Needs a Home." The album never establishes a comfortable tone, and instead ping-pongs between comical, hard Celtic romps like "Smitty's Glass Eye" and "Georgie on a Spree," and evocative lamentations like "I'll Regret it All in the Morning" and "Old Man Inside a Young Man." Still, there is very little to be disappointed in, for each song stands up well on its own, and a few are classics. Richard's guitar work, always unique in the way it engages the vocals in a dialogue, is plentiful and of course fascinating. If your constitution can handle the up-and-down sequencing of these brilliant songs, you'll find yourself playing this short disc frequently.